It doesn't take long for water to mix - the cold layer would have rapidly sunk back once the event was over and the warmer layers would be in the 5-7PPM on oxygen content once remixed

Kudos for the fish rescue -

Why to go Cary you are the Man!

Great Report. Thanks for doing all that and the pics!

Very strange occurence.

Thanks for the hard work saving all those fish.Very nicely done!!

Pretty freaky for sure...

Good job man!! Too bad this didnt happen during a tournament, you would have won for sure with all those big bass

Them are some sweet crappie.

That video is crazy.

Tarponfly (Carey) you never cease to amaze me! That was an incredible thing you did to save those fish! THANK YOU!!!

I'm sure that was a rare sight that most will never see. TOW gets you more than experience at catching fish I guess.

And no one should ever give you any grief about anything to do with fishing ever again!!!

You da fisherman!!!

That could very well have been a hydrogen sulfide (H2S) release from the lake floor reacting with the water and forming sulfur dioxide(SO2). This is common when organic matter decays under water causing a pocket of SO2 and H2S to push up to the surface and "belch" into the air. As explained by someone else earlier, this is why the fish were dying. The sulfur compounds would account for the rotten sulfurish smell you noticed(CH4 (mehtane) is odorless in nature so it couldnt have been methane). H2S is a highly deadly gas and is Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health at only 100 Parts Per Million in air. Thankfully you didn't get exposed to the gas at this concentration and this was an isolated and minor icident.

In the future,regardless of the percieved severety, I would leave the area and call the controlling water authority immediately and have them come out and assess the area and close it off if necessary. In this case that would be the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

This is one of the things that they beat into our heads in Hazardous Materials Operations training over and over again. Knowing what I know, and having done what I have done for 7 years, I am obligated to tell you and everyone else reading this the nature of the risk you took.

Next time think about your own safety and forget the fish, let them die, get out of there, call 911, and keep passers-by away from the area. It is not worth risking a human life to save a few fish.

Anyways, I didn't intend to put a damper on the heroic intent of what you did or ruin your praises. It terrifies me to think of someone driving their boat into and out of an H2S pocket for two hours. In my profession, the smell of rotten eggs often means mask up and evacuate.

Luckily it was probably just a normal "belch" of low concentration H2S and S02. Next time it could be beyond that 100 PPM IDLH threshold and put you in the floor of you boat just as dead as those fish in the water(just think, if it's killing them it can't be a good thing). It has and does happen.

Noble action, but reckless at the same time.

Agsellers post in plain english-the lake farted.

I say u rename it Mud Fart Hump

Yeah a potentially deadly fart!
Well, actually was deadly, to the fish.... SBD!

Better safe than dead from breathing in a deadly fart, but I still appreciate Carey's valiant effort. And I'm glad you're still alive 'cause some day is coming when I'll want to book you for a trip!